REPORT



THE MIKADO STILL BLOWS RUNNING TO ARANJUEZ


TEXT AND PHOTOS ALVARO Y SANTIAGO GRAIÑO



Two reporters from STOL travels in the engine of the Tren de la Fresa



The Mikado 141F2413 engine, hooked to the Tren de la Fresa in the platform of the Atocha station.



It is ten to seven in the morning of a october saturday. From the cafeteria of the Atocha station in Madrid, the first lights begins to outline the framework of rails and catenaries that constitute the basic countryside of the railway centers. It is five to seven. The STOL reporters look at their watches and , in this moment, punctuals like the modern railway, José Manuel García del Río and Rafael Almenara, outstanding representatives of the exclusive group of the last steam engine drivers, arrive at the appointment. The journey has begun.

A Mikado engine, one of the few repaired and in condition of working steam engine in Spain is the traction element of a popular touristic train: The "Tren de la Fresa". Organized as cultural initiatives of the Spanish Railways Foundation, from 14 years ago this train travels during the Saturdays and the Sundays in the period from April to October (not in August), reviving the memory of one of the first spanish railway lines. Installed in its four Costa coaches, the passengers, almost all of them are families or students from primary school, are amazed with the austere countryside of the first plains in Castilla-La Mancha, way to the historic city of Aranjuez, where, after their arrival, they do an intense cultural route, visiting museums, gardens and its monuments. At the top of the train, the Mikado engine, shining and perfectly preserved, blows proud of its force, with its crest of smoke as a dark pantograph, almost immaterial, that touches the catenary of the heaven.

But let«s go back to Atocha. From there, journalists and engine drivers must go to their meeting with the engine that is waiting in the Repairings Central Workshop of Villaverde (Madrid), where at three o«clock in the morning has begun the ignition of the machine. As far as there the journey is done in a commuter train, a short route that serves to begin a good relationship between the journalists and the engine drivers. This relationship is born because is essential: the four people will have to share both the heat of the boiling and the cold wind that is generated by the 90 kms/h of the highest velocity of the engine, in the little space of the cab.


The old engine, in the moment of crossing with a passengers train.



It is half past seven. The 141F2413 Mikado waits in a special rail in the Central Workshop, while the maintenance workers do the last tunning activities of the firing, cleaning and provision process. It is an engine from 1957 that, as its name "Mikado" indicates, has a 1-4-1 wheels disposition (one free front axle, four axles with joined wheels -tractors- and a free back axle). The engine uses as combustible fuel oil (because of this the "F" in its number), has a power of 2.000 horse-power and an authorized velocity of 90 kms/h. The tractor wheels have a diameter of 1.560 mm y the effort of traction (theoritic) is 14.790 Kg. The total weight of the engine and the tender is service is 166.500 Kg., and the length is 23,12 m. The functioning pressure is 15 Kgs. per square centimeter, its two rollers have a interior diameter of 570 mm. and the stroke of the plunger is 710 mm. About the distribution is a Walscaherts type. The engines like this were the last steam engines that were used in the Renfe regular service. Easily turned engines, were used to tow both passenger trains and goods transport ones.

The engine uses as combustible fuel oil (because of this the "F" in its number), has a power of 2.000 horse-power and an authorized velocity of 90 kms/h. The tractor wheels have a diameter of 1.560 mm y the effort of traction (theoritic) is 14.790 Kg. The total weight of the engine and the tender is service is 166.500 Kg., and the length is 23,12 m. The functioning pressure is 15 Kgs. per square centimeter, its two rollers have a interior diameter of 570 mm. and the stroke of the plunger is 710 mm. About the distribution is a Walscaherts type. The engines like this were the last steam engines that were used in the Renfe regular service. Easily turned engines, were used to tow both passenger trains and goods transport ones.

When the engine drivers are arrived, the lubricate works, too important to leave them to other person that is not the engine driver. The last technnical checks are done, there is enough boiler pressure and in a little time, the steam jets announce that the engine is prepared. Drivers and companions get into the cab and a loud and merry whisle is the sign of the beginning of this travel stage: going back, the engine goes to the Atocha station to hook the Tren de la Fresa, whose romantic wood coaches wait sorrounded by the modernest equipments of the railway technology. The brake tests are done and after checking of that all is right, waits the passengers.

At 10:00 o'clock the train goes. The reporters feel a little like intruders and try to do their work taking up as less space as possible. The noise and the vibrations-increased by the four coaches-still intimidate them. But soon, the smell of the burnt fuel, the fresh and quick air and the loud whistles of the engine going out of the station make them not to keep out. The world seems different from a cab. An then an image in which they are included, amazed them: in the moment of going on the exit rails of the station, the Mikado and its train are parallel, as protected, of an AVE on the left and an Intercity on the right. Then they separate from us and the Mikado goes to Aranjuez. The symbol has disappeared, but there is some good augury left in the air. The outward journey is downhill and the engine values it. The stations follow one another with a high velocity and the Mikado five them a strident greeting. The station-masters greet when it pass with a not routine gesture, almost with complicity and the passengers that wait other trains on the platform watch with stupor but liking, the passing of this vision full of suggestions and anachronisms.


The checking and tunning of the engine is necesary in each journey.



It is true that many people is mad about the steam world. For example, the engine drivers that drive the Mikado of the Tren de la Fresa are a proof of it: both men work in this convoy in a voluntary eay, in spite of their families too. The two men are young and one of them, José Manuel, works in the new command of the Chamartin station, both of them sorrounded by computers and high technology. Perhaps as a compensation, the steam engine, its tradition, its aesthetics calls them and their free hours are dedicated to this technology...although are conscious of this is a symbolic activity and perhaps ephemeral.

But while the future is decided, the engine drivers drives this Mikado way to Aranjuez, whose station and and rail beach are beginning to see after one hour of travelling. When the passengers are arrived, go out of the train, the engine is unhooked and goes to the triangle that the station has in its equipments. When these shuntings are done, the engine is drived to a rail in the engine house and the penultimate checking is done. It will rest there until the exit and turn hour to the Atocha station.


The stoker of the steam traction do not rest a moment in the route.



At 18:00 o'clock the engine is hooked again to its train in the platform 1 of the Aranjuez station. The excitement that this nice monster provokes makes that children and adults apply to go into the cab -with the scuse of the children whim, the adults want give theirs to theyselves, but the rules are stricts and the access do not pass the steps. The public form a mass and the questions emerge incessants, some topic, some technnical: Does it use coal?, what pressure does it needs?...Some retired engine driver shows the mechanisms to his grandson and the child want listening to the whistle out of time...There is something of toy in these engines.

Whatever, at 18:35 the Mikado whistle announces its departure. The turn is as vibrating as the outward journey with the incentive of that now the journey is uphill, the engine seems as doing an effort, adding a show of puffs and din of rods. In one occasion, the train has to wait to leave the pass of a commuter train -the timetable is the most important- and, finally, free way and arrival at Atocha. The passengers leave the train there, but for the engine drivers and their companions the day is not finished. It is from this moment when are going to start a big number of shuntings to leave the train and the engine prepared for the following day, in which it will done again the same route.

It is dark. After a time of waiting for the shunting authorization, the Mikado is unhooked and is drived to a separated rail, where it is going to wait that the train is drived to its rail, shunting done with the traction of a noisy electric Alsthom 276, as old as the Mikado in spite of its moderner image and relegated only to these activities in the Atocha courtyard. Finally, the Mikado with its cab lighted by some dim bulbs and the boiler brightness, begins its route on the large rail beach of Atocha way to the revolving platform, where with a shunting of perfect synchronize, the engine drivers place the engine in the definitive rail that takes to the hook with the Tren de la Fresa. Finally all is prepared for the next journey. It is ten o'clock in the evening and the engine drivers and their Mikado can go to rest.

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